Piling on...five yards, first down.

I am getting so, so, so tired of people piling onto Lebron James for switching to the Heat.

I'm not talking about Cleveland fans.  Hey, if you've been following the Cavs for two decades and you want to say that Lebron James' move was halfway between Cain and Benedict Arnold, that's cool.  I can deal with hyperbole.

What gets me is the media.  The very same media that has been pushing Lebron to do this for a decade castigates him for actually listening to them. 

Let me give two examples, from Yahoo Sports:

1.  Adrian Wojnarowski's piece on how this all started in 2006:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ArmhZfJA6L1QZ1o3SHjeitO8vLYF?slug=aw-heatfreeagency071610

Funny thing about this article.  I don't think he woke up on July 16th, 2010 and had a revelation that Lebron James was almost kicked off the Olympic team for being an ass.  No, he waits until Lebron is already being derided, and THEN he writes the article, years after the event.  

2.  Kelly Dwyer's piece on the kids selling lemonade to pay for Gilbert's fine:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Cleveland-kids-push-lemonade-to-help-pay-Cavalie;_ylt=AnYAIuDj8R02XkS5Qi_zsE3YrYZ4?urn=nba,256512

You want to know who "enabled" Lebron to be "the distateful type that he's become", Mr. Dwyer?  Go look in a mirror.  This whole thing has been media driven.  If people like Wajnarowski and Dwyer had written about this in 2008, instead of waiting until now, we'd still have Lebron. 

Lebron has this horrible tendency to push and push and push until somebody pushes back.  Kind of like, well, every other person on this planet.  When he pushed too hard in the Olympics, and Nike said quit it, he quit it.  If he'd been getting bad press about his behavior and friends from the start, he'd have changed.  Instead, it was all these wonderful articles about how perfect Lebron was.

The worst thing that any of these writers said about Lebron before he switched teams was that he celebrated too much.  Celebrated too much!  Who cares!  Was this other stuff not newsworthy until now?  Why wait on this?

Ever met a topper?  If you're telling a story about how you broke your leg, this idiot has to interrupt with a story about how he broke all four limbs.  Lose a dear uncle, and he has to interrupt about how he lost both parents in the same day.  Well, that's what this feels like.  Cleveland is mourning the loss of one of the greatest players to play for Cleveland, and the national media is horning in, trying to make it that it wasn't just about Cleveland.

Well, it was just about Cleveland.  If you're a Knicks fan, you're going to see Lebron play for a rival, just a different one.  He didn't die.  He didn't retire.  If you feel sympathy for us, great.  If you think Lebron was a jerk, fine.  If you write a 14 paragraph screed about how Lebron was nasty to the Knicks...um, no.  Your timing is terrible.

These guys had seven years to write about Lebron.  To write about this stuff now that it's 'safe' is cowardice.  I don't appreciate people piling onto my grief, telling me how horrible Lebron is now, when you knew all along but kept it to yourself.   Lebron didn't kill anyone, didn't trap a 17 year old in the bathroom in order to rape her, didn't train dogs to kill each other for sport, didn't set up a hit on his girlfriend, didn't try to get past airport security with a gun, didn't push illegal drugs onto rookie teammates, and didn't charge into the stands to fight with a fan.  Lebron was just an insensitive jerk.  That's it.  The media needs to quit horning in so we can grieve in peace.